6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive
AMLD6 (6th Anti-Money Laundering Directive) is the sixth European Union directive on combating money laundering, adopted in 2018. It harmonises the definition of money laundering offences across the EU and strengthens applicable criminal penalties.
AMLD6 (EU Directive 2018/1673) differs from previous directives through its focus on criminal law harmonisation. It establishes a list of 22 predicate offences for money laundering that all Member States must criminalise, including tax fraud, cybercrime, and environmental offences. This harmonisation aims to eliminate disparities between national legislations that allowed criminals to exploit more lenient jurisdictions.
Among the major innovations of AMLD6 is the extension of criminal liability to legal persons, meaning that companies themselves can be prosecuted and sanctioned for money laundering offences. The directive also strengthens minimum imprisonment penalties (at least 4 years) and introduces the concept of 'self-laundering', criminalising the laundering of proceeds from one's own criminal activities.
For regulated entities, AMLD6 reinforces the importance of a robust compliance framework. The possibility of direct criminal sanctions against legal persons makes it imperative to implement rigorous verification procedures. CheckFile.ai helps businesses meet these requirements by automating document verification, a critical link in the money laundering prevention chain.
Regulations
Real-world examples
- 1.An EU Member State transposes AMLD6 into national law, expanding the list of predicate offences for money laundering to include cybercrime.
- 2.A company is criminally prosecuted as a legal entity for failure of due diligence that facilitated money laundering, in accordance with AMLD6 provisions.
- 3.A compliance officer updates their institution's internal procedures to incorporate the 22 categories of predicate offences defined by AMLD6.